By Fred Jackson
March 1, 2001

(AgapePress) - In the first incident of its kind, an American court has convicted a Chinese company of using forced prison labor to help manufacture a product used widely here in America.

Allied International Manufacturing Stationery Company of Nanjing, China, makes metal clips for binding documents.

The New York Times says records seized by U.S. Customs agents show the company paid prison officials in the Chinese province to have more than 60 imprisoned women assemble the clips.

Federal officials say the women were not paid, and worked so many hours that their fingers were sometimes bloodied.

The black spring clips were imported by a related company in Edison, New Jersey, Officemate International Corporation. The owner of that company, 57-year-old Peter Chen, also owned and controlled Aimco with some other family members.

The Times says U.S. authorities were tipped off about the use of prison labor by a New York businessman, Peter Levy. He runs a competing office products company that was sharply undersold by Aimco. In 1997, he went to China and took videotape of the clips coming out of the Nanjing prison on a truck.

In addition to the prison labor charge, Chen pleaded guilty yesterday to evading taxes on more than $480,000 in profits from the small paper clips, and funneling that money to Hong Kong.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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